A field trip to Copper, the prettiest induction stove-slash-grid asset there is
Plus, the Trump administration might be trying to unleash pollution and global warming hell, but a lot of lawyers and the rest of the world moving on climate action are firmly in the way.
This week on Everybody in the Pool
Hey, you guys wanna watch water boil with me?
I know you don’t think you do, but actually you kind of do, since first of all, it happens in like 90 seconds flat, and second, it’s water boiling on top of the coolest induction stove on the market (that I’ve seen, anyway).
Bonus points if you’re the same age as me and you get my Knight Rider reference.
For the latest episode of Everybody in the Pool, I visited the Berkeley headquarters of Copper, which is rethinking the stove (and future appliances) as a home electrification upgrade and also, my favorite thing, a grid asset.
The company’s flagship product, Charlie, is a 30-inch induction range with a built-in battery. That battery is the secret sauce: it means you can buy and install the stove without any wiring or electrical panel upgrades. Plus, you can use it when the power goes out. And induction ranges offer the the kind of precise, responsive cooking most people associate with gas — without the toxic fumes or the heat of standing over a stove with an open flame.
Um, also? These stoves are sexy.
Then, of course, just as I did with Quilt, we zoomed out to the bigger story, including how incentive programs are making electrification feel less out of reach, and why Copper thinks appliances like this could eventually become grid-interactive assets that help balance the grid instead of just drawing power from it. Plus I got to talk with Copper’s in-house chef about how she wanted one of these stoves so bad she un-retired to take a job there and get to the top of the waiting list.
Listen to the episode here or wherever you get your podcasts!
Recommended reading
I know it’s been in fashion lately to retreat from the topic of climate, investing in climate, believing in climate change, that sort of thing. But of all the walk-backs that are definitely going to occur as the political pendulum swings, I suspect the brand-new climate deniers are going to walk back the fastest. Here’s why: Do you want to do business internationally, or do you not want to do business internationally?
Don’t let Donald Trump distract you; the rest of the world is finally making real progress on climate (paywall, with my apologies)
Also, as Bill McKibben points out, El Niño is coming, and it is not likely to be pretty. Reality hits hard when it’s everywhere all at once.
Finally, I love this piece in Public Notice, an interview with Volts founder David Roberts, about the legal battle facing the Trump administration’s attempt to void the EPA’s legal foundation for the federal government’s regulation of greenhouse gases, the endangerment finding.
But all is not lost even if the Supreme Court does allow the Trump administration to just make s**t up (per usual, really). Because it’s starting to circulate that getting rid of the endangerment finding would actually take away a key protection that keeps states and individuals from suing fossil fuel companies over emissions.
And suing oil companies is starting to get real popular.
One of my favorite things to say in these troubled times is that I believe in science — including the Newtonian principle of an equal and opposite reaction. Sometimes, the best equal and opposite reaction is good old-fashioned lawyers.
Buying advice
I mean, I don’t know about you, but I am going to scrounge the earth for all the incentives that exist to get myself a Copper stove. I want the white one, so I might have to wait a minute until it comes back in stock. But that one, honestly, is a no-brainer.